The Weekly Buzz 05.26.16

WHO’S IN TOWN?

For 23 years, U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, has split his time between Washington, D.C. and his Central Coast district and home in Carmel. He’s in town this week for a celebration co-hosted by the American Farmland Trust and Ag Land Trust, honoring the decades of work Farr has done to protect farmland. One of the first bills he introduced, in 1995, was the Farms for the Future Act, which allowed the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to provide matching grants for farmland conservation easements. California Secretary of Natural ResourcesJohn Laird also speaks.

6pm Friday May 27. Corral de Tierra Country Club, 81 Corral de Tierra Road, Salinas. $150/person; $250/couple. (202) 378-1263, www.farmland.org.

WHAT’S UP WITH THAT

A reader wonders what the story is with the whale-tale-shaped post at Chambers Lane off Carmel Valley Road. A visit there reveals it will hold a circular sign advertising Carmel Valley Garage at that corner, and shopping center tenants (including Carmel Valley Market) and other businesses next door (like Rombi tasting room).

OVERHEARD

“Handcuffs aren’t supposed to be comfortable.”
- A Seaside police officer talking to a man being detained under suspicion of causing a fight.

GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK

GOOD: It was a good week for local Democrats: Hillary Clinton held a free rally at Hartnell College in Salinas May 25, part of her California tour leading up to the June 7 presidential primary election. Meanwhile Ben Jealous, a Seaside native and former president of the NAACP, joined the celebrities-for-Bernie circuit. Jealous spoke in support of Bernie Sanders May 21 at Seaside High School, drawing a crowd of about 155 to the free event. There are seven undeclared delegates from Congressional District 20 who will go to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia July 25-28, who will be divided up based on the primary election results (it’s not a winner-take-all system). Jealous advocates for policies he believes would alleviate mass incarceration of blacks, and opposes Clinton’s positions on various criminal justice issues, including her support for the death penalty.

BAD: It was a bad week for nurses and doctors at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, who were left without experienced support staff from May 17-19 while certified nursing assistants, phlebotomists, generators, pharmacists and other staff members picketed outside the hospital. The staff, represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, went on strike for one day to protest the proposed terms of a new contract. But they were out for three days because administrators said the replacement workers (derisively known as scabs) they hired were under contract for three days of work, costing the hospital $1.6 million. While many nurses were sympathetic to the union’s cause, having narrowly avoided a strike themselves last year, some said the replacement workers cut corners. An X-ray machine was out of service after being incorrectly used, according to SVMH insiders.